Description of the flag

The Western Australian state flag was created as a colonial flag - a British Blue Ensign with the badge of the colony added to the blue field. In Australia, Western Australia's badge [a black swan on a yellow background] was the only design intended to clearly symbolise the colony. WA was originally called the Swan River Settlement and the black swan found upon the river had become recognised as representing the Colony.Ralph Kelly, 19 September 1999

The flag is described in Part I of the Schedule to the 2006 State Flag Bill as introduced
to the parliament as

“a blue flag with
(a) the Union flag occupying the upper quarter next to the staff; and
(b) depicting a black swan (Cygnus atratus) on a circle of
yellow situated centrally in the fly (the half of the flag
furthest from the staff) and facing the staff.”

Jonathan Dixon, 5 June 2006

In creating an accurate drawing of the state flag for the final
version of the State
Flag Act 2006 (the official reproduction can be seen at the website of the
Deparment of the Premier and Cabinet), several details of
the specification have now been fixed:

The colours are Pantone Blue 281c, Red 032c, Yellow 109c and Black.

The drawing of the swan is standardised to that of the British
Admiralty's Flags of all Nations Volume II, 1958 [hms58] (page 17).

The badge size is 4/9ths the width of the flag.

There is no black reference line around the badge when used on the
flag.

The swan is contained within an imaginary circle that
is 59% of the size of the badge. That imaginary circle is off-centre
relative to the badge (to the right and above the centre of the badge
circle).

Ralph Kelly, 10 September 2006

The specification sheet drawn by Ralph Kelly as part of the advice from Flags Australia is available from Western Australia's Department of the Premier and Cabinet as a PDF file.Jan Oskar Engene and Ralph Kelly, 10 September 2006

Detail of the badge

image by Martin Grieve, 1 Mar 2006

The black swan is the official bird emblem of Western Australia. It is
described as follows in the Australian Fauna website:

"Black Swan (Cygnus atratus)
European explorers were amazed (Vlaming in 1697) to discover that in
Australia swans are black1.
They are common birds across all of coastal Australia, and nest in
swamps or river estuaries. They are not common in the North West.
They make their nests out of coarse reed stems on a dry bit of a small
island, or on a river bank. They lay a clutch of about five eggs which
are greenish white in colour, usually in autumn (March-April) or in
winter.
They can travel in enormous flocks and move from one feeding ground to
another. They will feed in the shallows, or eat grass on the banks.
They are not popular with farmers.
Swans are a protected species in Australia."

1 Australian swans are the only non-white swans in the world.Ivan Sache, 15 August 2005

Variations

Badge sizes

It is worth noting that whilst the various badge defacements on the fly of blue or red ensigns
of The United Kingdom's Overseas Territories flags were enlarged circa 1999, this was
not the case for any of Australia's State flags or flags of Governors,
which retained the 4/9 hoist width = diameter convention.Martin Grieve, 1 March 2006

Not quite in the case of state flags if you don't mind me saying so, Martin.
The diameter of the Western Australia badge (as given in The State Flag - State of
Western Australia issued by the Prime Minister's Department in June 1982) is 1/2 the hoist width.Christopher Southworth, 1 March 2003

Christopher may have a point here. I have 2 fully printed WA flags
here with me. One is 27×54 inches while the other is 3×6 feet. On
the 27×54, the disk is exactly 13.5 inches in diameter while the
3×6's disk measures out at exactly 18 inches. I had never noticed
this before.

My guess is that this modification took place when some WA
bureaucrat was asked to write a spec sheet for the flag. They took a
quick glance at an existing flag, sized the disk up as "half", and
the rest is history. I would be interested to measure the disk on an
older WA flag.Clay Moss, 1 March 2006

I came across an older WA flag today with a 4/9 badge which leads me
to believe that any recent change that took place in the flag's
description was done erroneously.Clay Moss, 3 March 2006

No specifications are given for the
size of the disc in Part I of the Schedule to the original 2006 State Flags Bill. However, a "reproduction" is set out in Schedule 2, in
which diameter of the disc appears to be half the hoist width.Jonathan Dixon, 5 June 2006

Black fimbriation?

Drawings of the state flag as used by official sources, i.e. the
Government of Western Australia, show a black ring [on the outside of the yellow disc containing the black swan].
In particular, if you go to this page of the
Department of Premier and Cabinet:
you may download .jpg and .tiff files of the State Flag emblem. That of
the State Flag, whilst being of what some might term questionable
technical quality, does show a black edging to the yellow ring of
varying degrees of thickness.

Insofar as unofficial sources of the flag image are concerned, there are
a number of what would appear to be printed flags of Western Australia
on eBay Canada showing the black line, for example. Of the other flag
images available elsewhere on the internet, some show the black line and
some do not. It appears to be fairly evenly split.

The State Records Office has a number of files on the state's emblems
and the Colonial Secretary's Office file Accession 752, 744/1924 (AN
24/2), in particular, relate to the State Flag. Unfortunately, these
are not available on their web site - although an early version of the
Swan badge is - and it seems that a visit to the reading room in Perth
is necessary to view them.Colin Dobson, 2 March 2006

As far as the black ring on the flag is concerned- I believe
that this does not constitute part of the flag and in merely
a construction line, but perhaps this is actually how these flags
are manufactured?Martin Grieve, 2 March 2006

I am very cautious as to how "official" the drawing which depicts the
black outline around the disk actually is, even if it originates from
an official web-site.
I have a hunch that this is due to sloppy artwork, where the artist draws
the badge and encompasses it with a black ring, then places the entire
device onto the fly of the blue ensign, neglecting to erase the ring.Martin Grieve, 3 March 2006

In that image, the yellow disc itself is shown at 4/9, with the
ring (which does vary slightly), at about 1/27 the disc extra to that. However, I have written information on Western Australia (dated June 1982) which most definitely makes the disc one-half of the fly, and makes no
mention whatever of a black line.Christopher Southworth, 2-3 March 2006

No black fimbriation is mentioned in Part I of the Schedule to the
original 2006 State Flags Bill. However, a "reproduction" is set out in Schedule 2, in
which there is a black fimbriation, as in the documents described by Colin Dobson [above].Jonathan Dixon, 5 June 2006

Variations in the swan

W. Smith says that Western Australia uses more then one variation of the flag, but shows only one: a 'blue duster' with black swan in yellow disk, but they are just different artistic renditions of the black swan.Brendan Jones, 19 March 1996

Swan with ripples

image by Clay Moss and Martin Grieve, 1 Mar 2006

This is another version of Western Australia's flag
that I have seen several times. I believe it's a rare version, but I have
seen enough or these to merit a comment. I have also seen the badge with
"ripples" on paper.Clay Moss, 1 March 2006

Brown Swan

image by Clay Moss and Martin Grieve, 2 Mar 2006

image by Clay Moss and Martin Grieve, 2 Mar 2006

These are 2 other WA flags that are seen from time to time.
You'll notice that the swan, and swan & "ripples" are brown. I have seen
several of each of these flags over the years. I don't think it was the
intention of any manufacturer to print brown swans or ripples, but it
happened nevertheless, and said flags made it into circulation.

My guess is that there must have been some issue with the black dyes that
were being used, and they dried looking brown. Whatever the case, these
flags are out there in numbers worth noting.Clay Moss, 2 March 2006

Swan with colour

image by Clay Moss, 23 Dec 2009

One very nice picture that I receive from the Fremantle Ports folks shows a gentleman building a Western Australia flag. Unlike today's most used design, his version had a bit of color in it. My image more or less shows what he put together.Clay Moss, 23 December 2009

History of the flag

1870s flag

image by Martin Grieve, 28 Feb 2006

The first State flag of Western Australia was a blue ensign defaced
with a yellow disk upon which a silhouetted Black Swan was emblazoned,
facing the fly.

The original name of the State was in fact "The Swan River
Settlement", and in 1870 Governor Weld suggested that the black swan would be the
obvious choice of badge for the colony as it "has been always considered as its special badge, or
cognizance."

Western Australia's first flag, adopted in 1870, was little different
from its current flag - it had the black swan facing
towards the fly of the flag rather than the hoist.
It is not clear why the flag was originally made this way. In the
colonial seal and postage stamps
of the time the swan was generally shown facing left, but the state
badge approved by the Admiralty on 3 January 1870
showed a right facing swan.

As the Australian Coat of Arms were designed in 1901, the states'
shield shows a right facing swan for Western Australia,
reflecting the design of the badge at the time.
In 1953 the direction of the swan was reversed to conform to the
vexillological guideline that animals on flags should face
the hoist (i.e. be left facing on the obverse), so that when carried
forward on a pole, the animal will point in the same direction as the
bearer.

No official documentation of this change has yet been discovered,
hence the exact date of the change is unknown.

Alfred Znamierowski however, in The World Encyclopedia of Flags [zna99] informs the reader that

As early as 1830, a black swan (Cygnus atratus) became the emblem of
the Colony. Aboriginal legend tells how
the bibbulman tribe of Western Australia were originally black swans
who changed into men.

The badge, introduced on 27 November 1875, was yellow with the black
swan turned out to the fly;
in 1953 a mirror image of this was produced instead.

Barraclough and Crampton in Flags of the World, 1978 [bcr78] speak of the
modern version:
"Oficially adopted on 27 November 1875, but with the black swan, the
distinctive native bird,
facing the sinister. This was corrected in 1953."

We still don't have an exact date here, but it sounds like sometime
in 1953.Martin Grieve, 28 February 2006

As some of you may be aware a Private Members Bill
sponsored by the Hon Colin Barnett (the Hon Barry
House MLC had carriage through the Upper House) was
passed by the Western Australian Parliament last
Thursday - 1st June, Foundation Day in WA.

The Western Australian State Flag Bill gives the WA
Flag legislative status which will prevent anyone in
the future from changing the flag without
Parliamentary approval.Nigel Morris, 5 June 2006

This Bill was previously introduced in 2004, but lapsed when Parliament
was prorogued. The Bill, which makes the flag recognised in law, rather
than just as convention, was agreed to by the Legislative Council on
Foundation Day 2006, and will come into effect when given Royal Assent.

Colin Barnett, when introducing the bill (see the second reading speech), mentioned recent debates on
changing the flag and desecration of flags, but pointed out that this bill
does not address either issue, merely giving proper recognition to the
current flag and establishing the process for any future change.Jonathan Dixon, 5 June 2006

Flags Australia made a submission in respect
of the State Flag Bill 2006. The Secretary of Flags Australia, Tony
Burton, wrote to the co-sponsors of the private members bill (The Hon
Colin Barnet MP and The Hon Barry House) in early June 2006. Flags
Australia had become aware that the State Flag Bill 2006 had been
approved by Western Australian parliament, but with a very poor
quality drawing of the Western Australian flag set out in Schedule 2
of the Bill. The drawing in the Bill contained a thick black line
enclosing the yellow disk and other details of the flag design were
either unclear or not in conformity with past state flag usage.

As Mr Morris stated, the Bill codified the state flag and could not
be changed in the future without parliamentary approval. However, due
to the poor quality of the official drawing, the Bill was, in effect
creating a new flag of a design that was inferior to that used to
date by Western Australians.

Flags Australia's letter was referred by the Bill sponsors to
officials in the Western Australian Government, who agreed that Royal
Assent of the Bill should be delayed and the Schedule 2 drawing
should be replaced with a new drawing that accurately reflects the
correct technical specifications of the Western Australian state
flag. Tony Burton and I have provided assistance to the Western
Australian Government in resolving this problem, and we understand
that the Bill will be returned to the WA parliament for amendment.Ralph Kelly, 16 August 2006

I have now been informed by the Protocol Office in the Department of
the Premier and Cabinet, Western Australia that Royal Assent was
given to the State Flag Act 2006 on 24 August 2006. This followed
the reintroduction of the Bill into Parliament to correct Part 2 of
the Schedule. A new drawing was substituted to replace the poor
quality image in the original Bill.

I am pleased to advise that the new flag drawing was created by
myself and that the corrections were made following the intervention
of Flags Australia (Flag Society of
Australia Inc.)Ralph Kelly, 10 September 2006

Secessionist Flag of the 1930s

This flag came about by a campaign lead by The Dominion League and a successful referendum in Western Australia (April 1933) for the State to leave the Commonwealth of Australia and return to Britain as a directly governed territory. Despite the success of the referendum, the W.A. government of the day never enacted the result because neither King George V or his government were interested in requiring this former colony. The design consists of a Black Swan (facing the fly) on a Yellow Disc surrounded with a Black Ring, all centred on a British Union Flag.Ralph Bartlett, 4 January 2001